The great families of the Middle Ages

Earliest known Beauchamp of Bedford

Hugh de Beauchamp was recorded in the Domesday Book and died after 1101. 

Hugh may have been from Beauchamps in Normandy or perhaps from Calvados. No connection has been established between Hugh and Walter de Beauchamp,

Hugh was a tenant-in-chief with lands in Bedfordshire. His landholdings in Bedfordshire have been considered to have made him the first feudal baron of Bedford. At the time of the Domesday Book he held 43 manors in Bedfordshire and additional landholdings in Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. The core of Hugh's lands were those held before the Conquest by Eskil of Ware and men sworn to Eskil, with additional lands coming from thegns and sokemen in the county.

Hugh witnessed a charter of King William the Conqueror, which can only be dated to sometime between 1070 and 1089, where he is named as "sheriff", but it is unclear whether he was sheriff of Buckinghamshire or of Bedfordshire.

Earliest known Beauchamp of Elmley

Beauchamp is sometimes known as Walter de Beauchamp of Elmley, to distinguish him from the members of the Beauchamp family of Bedford. He married the daughter of Urse d'Abetot, who is usually named Emeline, although her name is not given in contemporary records. Urse d'Abetot was the Sheriff of Worcestershire from around 1069 to around 1108. Beauchamp may have been a tenant of his father-in-law prior to his marriage. Nothing is known for sure of Beauchamp's background before he first witnessed a royal charter sometime between 1108 and 1111

There are multiple entries for the name Beauchamp in the Domesday Book, with Hugh de Beauchamp having significant land holdings, mainly in Bedfordshire, following the  Conquest.

The name variation of Beaucamp does not feature in the Domesday Book.

Follow the link HUGH OF BEAUCHAMP for more details about his land holdings.

There is a place Beauchamps recorded in the Domesday Book but it does appear to link to the family.

Tenant-in-chief in 1086: Count Eustace (of Boulogne).
Lord in 1086: Rumold.
Overlord in 1066: Esger (the constable).
Lord in 1066: Godgyth <of Thorley>.

The other instance of Beauchamp we know about does not have an entry in the Domesday Book but the associated Elmley Castle does.

 NAME: HUGH OF BEAUCHAMP
This landowner is associated with 0 places before the Conquest; 48 after the Conquest. (Note that the same name is not necessarily the same person.)

After the Conquest

Elmley Castle was a settlement in Domesday Book, in the hundred of Oswaldslow and the county of Worcestershire.

It had a recorded population of 16 households in 1086 (NB: 16 households is an estimate, since multiple places are mentioned in the same entry).

Land of Worcester (St Mary), bishop of

Households
Households: 10 villagers. 12 smallholders. 8 slaves. 2 female slaves.
Land and resources
Ploughland: 9 lord's plough teams. 7 men's plough teams.
Valuation
Annual value to lord: 7 pounds in 1086; 6 pounds in 1066.
Owners
Tenant-in-chief in 1086: Worcester (St Mary), bishop of.
Lord in 1086: Robert the bursar.
Overlord in 1066: Worcester (St Mary), bishop of.
Lords in 1066: Godric; Kenward (the sheriff).
Other information
This entry mentions multiple places: Charlton; Elmley Castle.
Phillimore reference: Worcestershire 2,73

It is difficult at this stage to identify weather the Bedford or Emley branches were the main family. Apparently there is currently no known family link between the two branches, and they both appear in records at approximately the same dates. The Bedford branch with Hugh de Beauchamp who was recorded in the Domesday Book and died after 1101, and the Emley branch with Walter de Beauchamp appearing as a witness to royal charters between 1108 and 1111. A reasonable presumption therefore that Walter was born after Hugh, but in the same historic period.

Accordingly, the Bedford Branch is dealt with in Branch A, and Emley as Branch B.

Beauchamp of Bedford

From 1086, the Domesday Book

Please see the excellent work of Bedfordshire Historical Record Society, 'The Beauchamps, Barons of Bedford' by C.Gore Chambers and G. Herbert Fowler, upon which the following is based.

Further interesting information comes from the article about Bedford Castle.

Of the origin of the founder of the family nothing appears to be known. His name — de Bello Campo, Belcamp, or Beau Champ — is evidently taken from one of the several places of that name, the " Fair Field," in Normandy or Picardy. Mr. Round ingeniously suggests that it is to be sought in the Calvados.

Not in question though is that Hugh de Beauchamp was recorded in the Domesday Book. 

Ralf Taillebois, who there is suggested to have been Hugh's father-in-law, seems to have been succeeded by Hugh in his public capacity of Sheriff, as well as in his lands. Ralf had been Sheriff of Bedfordshire before 1086, but had died before that date ; the inference that Hugh succeeded him as Sheriff is strongly supported by two precepts of William the Conqueror.

Very soon after the latest date to which our evidence for the existence of Hugh de Beauchamp can be ascribed, we find Simon in possession of the Bedfordshire estates.

As no document as yet has been found to give the name of any holder of the Beauchamp estates between Hugh and Simon, we may suppose, till contrary evidence is produced, that Simon was the son of Hugh of Domesday Book.

Two contemporary writers have left an account of Stephen's siege of Bedford Castle at the end of 1137 and beginning of 1138. The Gesta Stephani states that at this time Miles de Beauchamp had custody and command of the castle by royal licence (Milo de Bello Campo castello Bedfordie ex regia permissione custos presidebat) ; and that he received the order to render up the castle and the duty of service which he owed to the king (ut et castellum Bedfordie et quam sibi debebat seruicii uicem . . . exhiberet) to Hugh " pauper," brother of Walerand Count of Meulan, whom Stephen seems to have created Earl of Bedford. Miles answered that he was ready to obey the King, except in so far as he should try to remove him from a possession which was due to him and his by right of his father (ni se a possessione ex paterno iure sibi et suis debita amouere temptare.

... the King had given the daughter of Simon de Beauchamp, with her father's honour [or barony] to Hugh, surnamed "pauper" (filii Roberti de Bello Campo munitionem tenuerunt .... quia Regem Hugoni cognomento pauperi filiam Simonis de Bello Campo dedisse cum patris honore audiuerunt totam hereditatem suam amittere uerentes.)

A little about Hugh pauper from Wikipedia.

Hugh de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Bedford (born 1106) was Earl of Bedford from 1137 to 1141. The grant of the earldom was by Stephen of England; this was the first of his numerous creations. Hugh was known as Hugh the Pauper or Hugh the Poor.

The existence of this title has been doubted. It is discussed by R. H. C. Davis on the basis of the chronicle evidence. However, it now appears to be accepted by historians that Hugh did receive the earldom of Bedford in 1138

In 1137 Stephen ordered Miles de Beauchamp, castellan of Bedford Castle, to give it up to Hugh. Miles resisted, and a siege followed. The castle was eventually taken, but Miles repossessed it in an attack.

He was the third son of Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester and Elizabeth de Vermandois.

Hugh pauper is stated as brother to Waleran 

Waleran was born in 1104, the elder of twin sons of Robert de Beaumont, Count of Meulan, who was also to become Earl of Leicester in 1107. On their father's death in June 1118, the boys came into the wardship of King Henry I of England. They remained in his care till late in 1120 when they were declared adult and allowed to succeed to their father's lands by a division already arranged between the king and their father before his death.

Beaumont is another family on the matrix. (Seperation 1)

Hugh pauper, otherwise known as Hugh de Beaumont "the Pauper", 1st Earl of Bedford is, according to my Family Tree, 6th cousin 28x removed, on my maternal side

Waleran married, firstly, Matilda, daughter of King Stephen of England and Matilda of Boulogne, Countess de Boulogne, circa March 1136. King Stephen of England is, according to my Family Tree, 1st cousin 28x removed, on my maternal side. Matilda of Blois was only 3 years when she was married off. Stephen of Blois, was King of England from 22 December 1135 to his death in 1154, therefore marriage took place whilst he was King. Matilda died about a year later.

Waleran subsequently married Agnes de Montfort, daughter of Amaury III de Montfort, Count of Évreux, and Agnes de Garlande, and they had issue.

 de Montfort is another family on the matrix. (Seperation 3)

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Beauchamp of Elmley

First appearance 1108

Beauchamp of Elmley, to distinguish him from the members of the Beauchamp family of Bedford

Walter de Beauchamp (died between 1130 and 1133) was a medieval nobleman and Sheriff of Worcestershire. Married to the daughter of one of his predecessors as sheriff, nothing is known for sure of his background before he appears as a witness to royal charters between 1108 and 1111. Beauchamp also inherited offices in the royal household from his father-in-law, and also appears to have been a royal forester. He and another nobleman divided some of the lands of his father-in-law, but disagreements about the division lasted until the 12th century between the two families. He died between 1130 and 1133, and one of his descendants later became Earl of Warwick.

Beauchamp inherited most of d'Abetot's lands and the hereditary office of Sheriff of Worcestershire when Roger d'Abetot, Urse's son, forfeited his lands and offices after being exiled by Henry I for murder. King Henry I of England granted Beauchamp the right to hunt wolves and foxes in the royal forests of Worcestershire. Along with the right to hunt in the royal forests came a grant of the right to keep pheasants on his own lands, and the right to fine anyone hunting the birds without his permission. Because of the king's promotion of Beauchamp, he is considered one of Henry I's "new men".

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